The present invention relates to devices of the type installed upon outside mail boxes to provide a visual indication to an observer at a remote location that the box has been opened, presumably for the purpose of delivering and/or picking up mail.
Mail is delivered in many areas, particularly rural and suburban, to boxes placed at a convenient height at the side of a street or road in proximity to the house or other structure to which it is addressed. The type of outdoor mail box presently in use by the millions and approved by the U.S. Post Office Department is elongated on its horizontal axis and one of the end walls is hinged to the bottom wall for opening and closing movement, usually retained in the closed position by a friction hasp having one piece attached to and extending outwardly from the center of the upper wall of the box and a second, manually engageable piece on the movable front wall or door.
The desireability of having means associated with the box to indicate that the door has been opened has long been recognized, and the prior art contains many examples of devices directed to this purpose. Such devices are most commonly of the type wherein the indication is provided by the position of an indicating member. It is generally found, however, that such devices require hand or sometimes power tools for installation upon the box, and/or that they require some manual manipulation or operation to come to the indicating position, and/or that certain portions are subject to greater stress and wear than others, e.g., by being engaged between the movable door and stationary portions of the box. Other disadvantages of complexity, cost, etc. may also by present.
It is the principal object of the present invention to provide a novel and improved signal device for mounting on a standard, outdoor mail box wherein visual indicating member moves from a set to an indicating position automatically upon opening the mail box door.
A further object is to provide a mail box signal device which is simple in both design and operation, as well as economical to manufacture in both labor and materials.
Another object is to provide an automatically operable signal device which is installed upon a conventional mail box without tools of any kind, and without modifying or piercing the box in any way.
Still another object is to provide a device for signaling that the door of a mail box has been opened which is extremely durable, having no parts subject to wear by friction.
Other objects will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.